英特尔老员工阐述科技界中“人际关系”的重要

在英特尔(Intel)担任处理器工程师已是第17个年头的Ronak Singhal说，一切都是“靠关系”──过去几年，他花了很多时间与Amazon、eBay、Facebook、Google、Microsoft等数 家网络大公司的顶尖计算机专家们打交道，收集他们的需求并将那些回馈意见纳入英特尔最新的服务器芯片开发计划中。 Singhal在英特尔最新 Xeon 与 Atom 系列服务器芯片发表会结束后接受EETimes美国版编辑访问时表示：“当他们之中有三个人想要的东西是一样的，你就知道找对方向了。”不过那些大公司不见得总是意见一致，因此英特尔最近开始针对包括eBay、Facebook在内的某些大客户，提供客制化版本的微处理器芯片。 到 目前为止，英特尔在这方面还在起步阶段；针对大客户，该公司可支持一些以软件或制程的修改为基础的特殊芯片频率、功率等级或是可靠度等规格。举例来说，如果芯片预计在一年之后就替换，可以调整至较高的频率；或是设定禁用超频模式(ultra-fast turbo modes)，因此能保证多年使用期限。

Ronak Singhal展示他协助参与设计的Nehalem等级Xeon芯片
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接下来将是很大的一步；英特尔的目标是开始为某些全球最大的资料中心打造客制化逻辑，可能采取的形式是加速如 Hadoop 等大型资料算法的功能区块；该功能区块可能嵌入一款英特尔的处理器，或成为搭配处理器的独立芯片。这并非英特尔习惯做的事，该公司过去比较擅长在世界各 地的任何一个晶圆厂生产相同的芯片。 但是时代正在改变，Singhal 正在追踪15家采用ARM核心设计服务器处理器的公司，包括Broadcom、Cavium、Marvell、Nvidia、Qualcomm、TI与 AMD等；这些对手都想藉由提供低功耗处理器来抢他的生意。Singhal相信，有几家他的大型网络公司客户确实肯为了降低资料中心功耗──这也是他们最 头痛的问题──而投资：“他们有钱。” 要与那些竞争对手拚高下对Singhal来说并非易事；到目前为止，英特尔在该应用领 域只有两款可用芯片，一款来自Marvell，另一款来自新创公司Calxeda；而那15家公司中有大多数将在明年推出首款芯片。一位市场分析师表示： “这是英特尔与整个产业界的竞争。” 本文授权编译自EE Times，版权所有，谢绝转载 本文下一页：英特尔内部的人际关系经营也不易

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{pagination} Singhal认为他已经准备好迎战──最近几年，他由尺寸较大、较耗电、采用Core 处理器核心的Xeon系列，扩充至运用新一代Atom核心系列处理器。去年英特尔推出了首款采用Atom核心的Centerton系列服务器处理器芯片， 该公司今年将推出第二代Atom核心低功耗服务器芯片Avoton，采用最多8个新型Atom Silvermont核心。 Avoton 也是第一款采用英特尔22纳米制程的服务器芯片，并支持Gbit以太网络、SATA等周边；到目前为止，Avoton设计在纸上看起来还不错，而 Singhal与他的团队正在开发下一代的Xeon系列产品Broadwell，以英特尔目前转向采用14纳米制程的Hasell架构为基 础；Singhal的团队甚至将推出与Avoton一样整合各种周边的版本，作为节省功耗的方案之一。 没有什么事情是容易 的，甚至是英特尔内部的人际关系经营；身为首席架构工程师，Singhal通常都在其团队中扮演魔鬼代言人，煽动关于关键设计决策的辩论。这其实是英特尔 内部的一个老文化，被称为是“具建设性的对抗(constructive confrontation)” Singhal表示：“你不能让人们对自己的假设感到满意。”此外他通常会一年前往以色列拜访当地的设计团队两次，该团队已经在进行将接续Broadwell芯片的14纳米新架构设计。英特尔工程师也与约10所顶尖大学保持紧密的合作，以吸纳人才。 通常史丹佛大学与柏克莱大学毕业的电子工程学生喜欢待在旧金山湾区工作，但那些来自美国东岸或中西部学校的毕业生，则会移往奥勒冈州等地工作；那是Singhal的驻点，英特尔验当地拥有多个设计团队。 Singhal 是在1997年由卡内基美隆大学(Carnegie Mellon)毕业后加入英特尔，他在学校时就接触过英特尔的工程师；而这份工作也是他毕业之后待过的第一家公司，有鉴于他与各家芯片厂商、大客户们建立 起的紧密合作关系，他应该还会为英特尔工作好一阵子！ 本文授权编译自EE Times，版权所有，谢绝转载 编译：Judith Cheng 参考英文原文：Intel Engineer Builds Social Networks，by Rick Merritt

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{pagination} Intel Engineer Builds Social Networks Rick Merritt SAN FRANCISCO — It's all about the relationships, says Ronak Singhal, now in his 17th year as a microprocessor engineer at Intel. For the last several years Singhal has spent much of his time developing relationships with top computer experts in the big Web companies -- Amazon, eBay, Facebook, Google, Microsoft. He collects their requirements and gets their feedback on Intel's latest server chip plans. "When three of them all tell you they want the same thing, you know you are on to something," Singhal told EE Times during a break in a press briefing about Intel's latest Xeon and Atom server chips. They don't always agree. So recently Intel has started providing a few of the biggest customers -- including eBay and Facebook -- with custom versions of its microprocessors. So far, Intel has taken baby steps in this area. For a big customer, it can support something unique in the chip's frequency, power levels, or reliability based on tweaks in firmware or the manufacturing process. For example, chips can be pushed to a higher frequency if they will be replaced after a year, or they can have their ultra-fast turbo modes disabled so they can be guaranteed to last many years. Ronak Singhal shows the Nehalem-class Xeon chip he helped design. The next step will be a big one. Intel aims to open the door to creating custom logic for some of the world's biggest datacenters. It is likely to take the form of a block that accelerates some big-data algorithm such as Hadoop. The block could get embedded in an Intel processor or become a standalone chip slipped inside a package next to the CPU. It's not something Intel is used to doing. The company wrote the book on "copy exact," making chips the same way in any fab anywhere in the world. But times are changing. Singhal now tracks 15 companies designing ARM-based server microprocessors, all trying to get a piece of his business by offering lower power processors. Singhal believes some of his customers in the big web companies are actually funding some of the competition in an effort to lower power in their datacenters, their top concern. "They have the money," he says. Many of these new competitors have their own cash. They include top chipmakers such as Broadcom, Cavium, Marvell, Nvidia, Qualcomm, Texas Instruments, and Intel archrivals AMD and Samsung. Keeping track of the new competitors is tricky for Singhal. So far Intel only has two working chips from the group, a part from Marvell and one from startup Calxeda. Most of the gang of 15 expect to ship their first parts next year. "It's Intel versus the rest of the industry," said one analyst at the Intel press briefing. Singhal thinks he is ready for the onslaught. In recent years he has expanded from working on the big but power-hungry Xeon line, using core processors, to a new Atom-based family. Last year Intel shipped Centerton, its first server chip using the lower-power Atom core. This year it will ship Avoton, a second-generation Atom server part, using up to eight new Atom Silvermont cores. It's the first Atom server chip to use Intel's 22 nm process and pack peripherals such as Gbit Ethernet and serial ATA. So far, the Avoton design looks good on paper. Right behind it, Singhal and his team are developing a next-generation Xeon line called Broadwell, essentially Intel's current Haswell design moved to its 14 nm process. Singhal's group will even deliver a version packing all the Ethernet, SATA, and other goodies it is putting into the Atom-based Avoton as another way to save power. Nothing comes easy, even the relationships inside Intel. As a top architect, Singhal often acts as a devil's advocate in his engineering team, inciting debates about key design decisions. It's an old part of the Intel culture known as constructive confrontation. "You can't let people get comfortable with their assumptions," Singhal says. There's some collegiality along the way. Singhal typically visits Intel design teams in Israel twice a year. They are already working on a new 14 nm architecture that will be the follow-up to the Broadwell chips. Intel engineers also maintain close ties with the big 10 universities from which they typically recruit talent. The EEs coming out of Stanford and Berkeley like to stay in the San Francisco Bay Area, but those from the East Coast and Midwest schools will make the move to places such as Oregon where Singhal works and Intel maintains many of its design teams. Singhal should know. He joined Intel in 1997 from Carnegie Mellon where he was able to make his first contacts with Intel engineers. It was his first job out of college and his only gig so far. Given his tight relationship with the chipmaker and some of its top customers, he's likely to stay quite a while longer.